Wordfish Review

Become a raconteur.

Over the years, the Nintendo DS has become a hotbed for games that supposedly make you smarter. While most of these brain-related games focus on cognitive thinking skills, Wordfish takes a much more focused approach. Wordfish is all about adding new words to your vocabulary, while attempting to have fun in the process.

As old as the joke is, you know you laughed the first time you heard about someone masticating. The word "masticate" just sounds dirty, but you can only have true fun with it when you know what it means. Granted, Wordfish has a much cleaner sounding vocabulary, but its ultimate goal is to expand the player's internal dictionary with interesting words.

In Missing Letter, you do as the name implies and write the letter missing in a word. The top screen may show HE_MET, and you would write L on the bottom screen with the stylus. The better you do in one round, the harder the words are in the next.

Wordfish wants you to be able to define words, not just spell them. From this perspective come games like Split Decision. During this mode, a definition will be displayed on the top screen. Afterwards you click on the left arrow to see one word, and the right arrow to see another. One of these words may be the term that belongs to the definition. Confirm the correct term to win. Be wary though, sometimes neither word will match the definition so you will have to select neither.

Other mini-games take on sillier teaching methods. Pasta Letters has you un-jumbling words in a bowl of alphabet soup and Block Letters has you spelling out words using letters on falling "Tetris" style blocks.

Performing well at any of the mini-games will reward you with points that can be used to increase your word power. Wordfish will give you a basic spelling test (a la Missing Letter) and determine your Word Power. As your Power increases through besting mini-games, the words will become appropriately harder.

The ultimate goal is to get your word power to one hundred percent, which is easier than it sounds. The words increase steadily in difficulty and Wordfish will basically only let your word power "level up" once a day. While some people (and their English major brains) would likely be able to dominate and get to one hundred percent instantly, Wordfish requires players to pace themselves and let the terms sink in.

To help you further with definitions, Wordfish offers a postgame breakdown of all the words you spelled or defined. This lets you study up on words that you didn't know, or thought meant something else. The game also contains a glossary that you can explore at your leisure to study up on all the words Wordfish has to offer.

Two-person multiplayer can be played with one or two cartridges. Multiplayer also grants players a new versus mini-game called Cube Panic. If you've ever played competitive Tetris multiplayer, just picture that, but with a focus on spelling.

Graphically, Wordfish is a fairly simple game. Wordfish's environments consist of the menu screen and other simple spelling related areas. Whether it be writing on a chalkboard or spelling words in chicken noodle soup, the game looks simple, which works just fine with Wordfish's "learn words" premise.

Audio is a slightly more significant drawback than the graphics. A mere handful of dull tracks are offered and repeat themselves throughout the mini-games. As a game that invokes a lot of quick thinking, it would be great for the music to match that tension.

The single most irritating part of this game is its text recognition feature on the DS' touch screen. Write too quickly or sloppy and your letter may not register correctly. Get in too much of a hurry and your M's will register as N's and so forth. Having to pace yourself can be an awkward contrast to the constant "race the clock" tension that Wordfish offers.

Mini-games like Speed Letters will help you grasp the writing technique that the game requires, but it still doesn't feel completely natural. It's somewhat irritating to have to "re-invent the wheel" so to speak about how you start and finish letters for them to register.

The Verdict

Wordfish is fun and challenging, but not without its flaws. While seven mini-games are available, they start to feel as if they cannibalize one another's ideas. There are multiple games for correct spelling, and learning correct definitions, but they take a minimalistic approach to the diversity of the subjects.

In the end Wordfish is a simple game across the board with a writing recognition system that doesn't always agree. The fact that it may be too simple in presentation may cause Wordfish to come off more boring than it really is.